KUALA LUMPUR: Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak was found guilty on Tuesday (Jul 28) of all seven charges in his first corruption trial involving millions of ringgit linked to state development fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
The charges include abuse of power, money laundering and criminal breach of trust.
High Court judge Mohamad Nazlan Mohamad Ghazali said when reading the judgment: “I find that the prosecution has successfully proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt. I therefore find the accused guilty and convict the accused on all seven charges."
He also noted that the defence “has not succeeded in rebutting the presumption on the balance of probabilities or raising reasonable doubt” on the abuse of power charge.
The charges against Najib, who served as prime minister from 2009 to 2018, involved the transfer of RM42 million (US$9.8 million) from former 1MDB unit SRC International into his personal bank accounts in 2014 and 2015.
He was charged with three counts of criminal breach of trust, three counts of money laundering and one count of abuse of power.
Following the verdict, Najib’s lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah asked for the sentencing to be postponed until Aug 3. “As we are aware, the whole country is in lockdown, my client isn’t going anywhere,” he said.
The prosecution, however, said that there is no valid reason for postponing the sentencing.
The court was told in the course of the trial that Najib was “shocked and upset” when he found out that millions of ringgit had been transferred into his private accounts.
Najib's defence team had argued that he was merely a victim of a conspiracy planned by fugitive financier Low Taek Jho commonly known as Jho Low.
Besides this trial, Najib is also facing two other 1MDB-linked trials. The corruption case related to an alleged money laundering of RM27 million will be tried at Justice Mohamed Zaini Mazlan's court from July 5 next year.
In 2018, after the Najib-led Barisan Nasional government was ousted in the 14th general election, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the next prime minister on his second stint in office, called for investigations on the 1MDB scandal to be reopened.
In the months that followed, Najib was barred from leaving the country and police had seized cash and other valuable items from premises linked to him.
Let's block ads! (Why?)
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiYWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmNoYW5uZWxuZXdzYXNpYS5jb20vbmV3cy9hc2lhL21hbGF5c2lhLW5hamliLXJhemFrLTFtZGItdHJpYWwtdmVyZGljdC1ndWlsdHktMTI5NjcwMzbSAQA?oc=5
2020-07-28 05:03:45Z
52780952220091
